Editing Freeport, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
The first settlement was made at Freeport in the 1760s.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QxsvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=U9sFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4624%2C1029977 | title=Six Townships | work=Beaver County Times | date=July 2, 1975 | access-date=April 30, 2015 | page=76}}</ref> Freeport received its name from David Todd, who declared it a free and open port. The borough was incorporated in 1833.<ref>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Charles E.|title=Along the Allegheny River: The Southern Watershed|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Owa8xzNjqcIC&pg=PA92|year=2006|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-3846-4|page=92}}</ref> Freeport was a port on the former [[Pennsylvania Canal]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Egle|first=William Henry|title=History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Civil, Political and Military from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028829955|year=1883|publisher=E. M. Gardner|page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924028829955/page/n348 337]}}</ref>

Twenty-seven lots on the lands became Freeport borough, and were conveyed by William and David Todd for $24 each in 1797. This land was originally part of Westmoreland County but by the time the town was laid out, it had been made part of Allegheny County.

This land was originally called Todd's Town after the founding Todd family, and it would go by this name until its incorporation in 1833. It was a proclamation by David Todd that gave the town the name of Freeport. Todd said: "all the ground between the houses on Water Street and the river shall be free to all the lot-owners, and that boats, rafts, and other river craft landing here should be free of wharfage. Ever since the laying out of the town, it is a free port for all the river craft; so, this town christened by the proprietors has ever since been called Freeport."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Gardner|first=Steven|title=History of an Allegheny River Town: Freeport, Pennsylvania|publisher=Lulu Press, Inc.|year=2018|isbn=978-1-387-87146-9|location=Morrisville, NC}}</ref>

Freeport's position on the Allegheny river gave it an ideal spot for industry and trade going to Pittsburgh. Therefore, it had several industrial businesses throughout the 19th century including the Lucesco Oil Refinery and the Freeport Brick Company. Remains of these businesses can still be seen on the river and are sometimes mistaken for the remains of the old Pennsylvania canal.<ref name=":0" />

Freeport P.O. appears in the 1876 Atlas of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://usgwarchives.net/maps/pa/county/armstr/1876/sbuffalo.jpg | title=Atlas of Armstrong County Pennsylvania, page 69 | publisher=Pomeroy, Whitman & Co. | year=1876 | access-date=November 9, 2018}}</ref> Its early history is detailed in Robert Walter Smith's 1883 History of Armstrong County.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/historyofarmstro01smit | title=History of Armstrong County Pennsylvania, Chapter 19, page 400 | author=Robert Walter Smith | publisher=Chicago: Waterman, Watkins. | year=1883 | access-date=November 7, 2018}}</ref> A more recent account of Freeport's history up to 2018 was published by Steven Gardner.<ref name=":0" />